12/09/02 - Check out this article on the Myth
of the Zen Roshi from Dark Zen at darkzen.com wherein people's silly
assumptions about transmission and the SFZC and
Suzuki and Baker get bopped about. There are some inaccuracies and stuff I
disagree with that I'll try to get to and I hate to see people's feelings
get hurt but this bit of axe grinding and bubble bursting is, to me, good for the
health of Zen institutions and the path of us poor pathetic practitioners
of Zen and whatever. And give us some feedback - Contact Me here at cuke.com if you
feel so inclined.

11/13/02 - Gary Snyder's article "Buddhist Anarchism"
-- one of the first expressions of what later became known as
"socially engaged Buddhism" -- is now online at http://www.bopsecrets.org/CF/garysnyder.htm
. - thanks to Ken Knabb and his BUREAU OF PUBLIC SECRETS with a dynamite
motto or whatever it is: "Making petrified conditions dance by
singing them their own tune."

10/27/02 - The Way
of Eiheiji: Zen Buddhist Ceremony was a two record set Created by
Suzuki Roshi's compadre Elsie Mitchell and her husband John. They worked
on it from 1957 through 1959 and Folkways Records released it in 1960. I
plan to get a sample of the recordings on here, but now one can read the
16 page booklet, written by Elsie, that came with it. And there are
photos. It's a unique picture of Soto Zen's jewel, Eiheiji, before the
modern era had taken much of a toll on it.

10/26/02 - Letters from Shunryu
Suzuki to Elsie Mitchell, founder in 1957 of the Cambridge Buddhist
Association. "I feel a great
responsibility for future students of Zen in America." - this has more graphics and is more complicated than most stuff
herein so please give me feedback as to how fast it loads and how it works
for you. Thanks. - DC

10/9/02 - A 1971 lecture by
Shunryu Suzuki on case 61 of the Blue Cliff Records. - not on site anymore
- only one lecture at a time.

9/23/02 - An improved presentation of The Way of Zazen mentioned in
the note below

9/22/02 - Happy equinox which came during
the light of the full moon. On this first day of fall, take a look at The Way of Zazen by Rindo
Fujimoto, edited and brought out by Elsie Mitchell of the Cambridge
Buddhist Association in 1966.

9/21/02 - Revised chapter that was cut from Crooked Cucumber now
called Art & Bart.

9/20/02 - Terrific article today in the SF Chronicle about the Real-to-Real
Film Festival that opens today. Congratulations to Michael Wenger.

9/18/02 - Cuke Mistake. Changing Art, Bart, and Elsie from 9/13
to Art and Bart when I checked up on date and fact discrepancies between
Art's and Elsie's stories and realized that the woman Art met that day
probably wasn't Elsie. Or maybe it was. Anyway, it doesn't matter.

9/17/02 - another cut from
Crooked Cucumber, this one on Suzuki Roshi's first visit to the
East Coast to see Elsie Mitchell and visit with the Cambridge Buddhist
Association.

9/13/02 - Art, Bart, and
Elsie - a dandy chapter that was cut from Crooked Cucumber that is in
the newly reorganized Excerpts
section which for now will include some other writings. (Now called Art
& Bart)

A memorial service for Philip Whalen
will be held at Green Gulch Farm in Marin County, CA, at 2:30 on September
1st. Green Gulch is located at 1601 Shoreline Hwy (Highway 1)
just south of Muir Beach.

8/23/02 - There will be a memorial service for Kobun Chino Roshi at
Jikoji near Los Gatos, CA, on Sunday, August 25th, at 11:00 A.M.
Jikoji is located off Hgwy 35, 1.8 miles north of Hgwy 9 on Ward Road.
Many will attend.

8/5/02 - Having returned from Tassajara where I spent ten days
with my eleven year old son, Clay, with great sadness I post here, for
those who don't already know, that Kobun Chino Roshi, our friend and
teacher, drowned with his daughter Maya on July 26 in
Switzerland. As I get more information I will post it on the Kobun Chino page.

6/30/02 - More on Philip Whalen
has been added including a report on his cremation ceremony, when and
where the memorial service for him will be, and where to send donations in
his name. There are many links to articles, obits, memories of Philip,
comments, poems, and pictures.

6/26/02 - This morning Philip Whalen died in his bed at the hospice
of Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco.

6/11/02 - Suzuki Roshi student Bill Lane
has been reading my books here by Shodo Harada Roshi who was my
teacher and kind patron when I was in Japan and I realized that I'd never
put them on this web site because this is a Shunryu Suzuki oriented web
site but it really has no particular limits and Shodo Harada Roshi's
teaching is as worthy as anything I've got on here. His books are Morning
Dewdrops of the Mind : Teachings of a Contemporary Zen Master andThe
Path to Bodhidharma : Teachings of Shodo Harada Roshi. Those links
are to Amazon.com (for informational purposes before you buy them from
independent booksellers though I must say I do appreciate Amazon) but you can also go to http://www.itteki-ji.org/teacher.html
to learn more about Shodo Harada Roshi, his teaching, his sangha, and his books. I miss
him. He's great. Check him out. The reason I keep writing his full name is
that there are so many Harada Roshis in Japan who teach westerners. It's
sort of an anomaly, like if there were five well known Zen teachers in
America named Johnson. - DC

6/6/02 - A Suzuki Roshi Lecture
from June 11, 1967 [replaced - only one lecture at a
time is posted.]

6/6/02 - Today all over America people are gathering
and marching and all to support sick people's right to take medicine,
namely, marijuana. I'll be in on the Santa Rosa, California, demonstration.
I want to make a poster that says

Buddhists Against
the Drug war

but I probably won't. I also think people
should be able to smoke marijuana for fun like I think they should be able
to do other naughty things like watch TV, eat sugar, drink beer, and run
their own lives. Like it or not, a lot of marijuana consumption is also
for spiritual purposes and so to deny it to them is religious persecution.
Nothing new. - DC

5/31/02 - For those of you who know Della
Goertz, her 90th birthday is coming up on July 11th. She
doesn't want any big to do made for it so Michael Wenger at Zen
Center is putting together an informal book for her which will consist of
people's memories and stories and tributes or whatever. Submissions should
be made to him by July 1. Della was one of Suzuki Roshi's first students
who met him in the first weeks that he was here in America. See the interview with Della that's on this side.
I'll try to put more on about her in the coming days. Send to Michael
Wenger, SFZC, 300 Page Street, San Francisco, CA 95472. And don't tell
her. Thanks - DC.

5/26/02 - I just finished Healing
Lazarus : A Buddhist's Journey from Near Death to New Life --
by Lewis Richmond, Pocket Books. I heartily recommend it Just put a review
on Amazon.com that says it goes deeper than most books on practice. Just
hit that link and it will take you to Amazon.com which will fill you in on
it. Good going Lew. And glad you made it back to the world of the living.
- DC

5/17/02 - Check out these links to two teachers in Suzuki Roshi's
lineage who teach in Northern California. Their sites include schedules,
talks, their books (both are writers listed elsewhere on this site) and
more.

And check out Zentatsu Richard Baker Roshi's Dharma Sangha Europe
site (in German) at http://www.dharma-sangha.de
- couldn't find anything for his American monastery at Crestone,
Colorado. Oh - Thanks to David McGrath for sending me a link to
Spiritual Projects in Crestone and Baca Colorado. Just hit http://www.manitou.org/mf_spiritual_ctrs.html
and once there, hit the link to The Crestone Mountain Zen Center. - DC

5/12/02 - Read Psychoactivism,
a chapter from Zig Zag Zen. This is an unedited version.

“Good Lord! Where did Byron Katie come from?
She’s the real McCoy. Her Work is amazingly effective—a simple,
straightforward antidote to the suffering we unnecessarily create for
ourselves. She asks us to believe nothing, but provides a surprisingly
effective and simple way to cut through the tangle of delusions we wrap
ourselves in. Just reading the exchanges in Loving What Is, I can admit
things I didn’t want to admit and stop torturing myself in ways I
didn’t realize I was doing.” -- David Chadwick, author of Crooked
Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki

4/1/02 - Greetings. I've got great news. I have
attained complete perfect enlightenment and can transmit it to you with
just two simple words. If you are ready to make the great leap just hit this link and ultimate bliss will be
yours. - DC

2/3/02 - Greetings on Super Bowl Sunday. I've been
working on my archives more recently due to a generous gift from a family
foundation and so I plan to put some more time into this site. This
morning I got a call from Mark Gripman who said he'd like to see more
Suzuki Stories. I didn't really add anything new to the site but I added a
Suzuki Stories link to the Outtakes
from To Shine One Corner
of the World: moments with Shunryu Suzuki so that they can be found there
as well as on the Shine main
page.